Election 2012: Seniors will be left without a ride after voters' decision on Muskegon Proposals 2 and 3

MUSKEGON, MI – A confusing second proposal on Tuesday’s city of Muskegon ballot seems to have sacked the city’s senior transit program for good.

City voters narrowly approved Proposal 2, which provided for a 0.1-mill increase in property taxes in the city to support the city’s senior citizens transit program. But in a confusing legal requirement, voters also had to approve Proposal 3, which put a 10-mill property tax cap into the city charter.

If both Proposals 2 and 3 were not approved, there would be no new funding for the senior transit program beginning Jan. 1, when the program is slated to end. Voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposal 3 even though it had no economic effect on property taxpayers in the city.

The Proposal 2 vote Tuesday was 6,278-5,504 in favor of the special senior transit millage, but Proposal 3 was defeated by a 7,932-3,576 margin. Voters also again rejected a move to eliminate the city’s long-standing civil service system but approved a controversial move to rezone the former Sappi paper mill property.

Mayor Steve Gawron

“The discussion earlier this year was that if the proposals were not adopted, indeed the program would end,” Mayor Steve Gawron said of the senior transit program. “That is where it was left. The majority of the commission’s position was not to revisit it.”

Muskegon city commissioners earlier this year eliminated the program from the city budget in a cost cutting move to save $77,000 a year. The 40-year-old program was eliminated as the city’s federal Community Development Block Grant funds have been whittled away.

Seniors living in the city are able to schedule weekday rides for medical appointments, shopping trips or social engagements in the Muskegon area, historically paying $1.50 for a one-way trip that costs City Hall roughly $10. The city has provided about 3,200 one-way rides each year to about 300 senior citizens who use to service.

The public outcry, especially from senior citizens who rely on the service on a regular basis, prompted the city commissioners to give city voters away to save the transit system.

Proposal 2’s 0.1-mill property tax increase would have raised about $70,000 a year to save the senior transit program. As one mill is $1 of property tax for every $1,000 of taxable value, the owner of a house valued at $50,000 in the city of Muskegon would have been a $2.50 a year tax hike.

The complication comes in state law governing how home-rule cities like Muskegon are allowed to levy property taxes. State law caps the city’s property taxes at 10 mills and allows specifically for taxes to pay for general operations and garbage sanitation, city officials explain.

If the city levies any special taxes beyond those – potentially for roads, parks or recreation -- state law mandates that the city’s property tax cap be placed in the city’s charter, city officials have explained.

Thus, Proposal 3 was put on the ballot for legal technicalities but did not change property taxes in the city beyond the special millage found in Proposal 2, city officials said. Voting results Tuesday obviously showed voters who supported Proposal 2 – 53.2 percent of those voting for the special senior transit millage – didn’t completely understand the need for both proposals to be adopted.

Bryon Mazade

“I don’t know what people understood or not, but we thought the ballot issues were fairly understandable,” City Manager Bryon Mazade said. “Senior transit services will be extended through Dec. 31. The decision has been made.”

Gawron said the prior decision was based on the need to reduce costs as the city faces severe revenue cuts with the closing of the Sappi paper mill and the potential closing of the B.C. Cobb power plant.

As for Proposal 1 – the elimination of the city’s civil service system in the city’s charter in favor of a more modern personnel system – the voters spoke load and clear, again. For nearly a dozen times, voters have rejected the charter change, this time with a 67.8 percent vote margin.

“Proposal 1 crashed and burned. The voters have spoken once again,” Gawron said. “I am of the mind to see what we can to modernize the existing civil service system we have as much as allowed.”

Where the city commission is not expected to be discussing civil service any time soon, that will not be the case for Proposal 4 – the rezoning of the Sappi paper mill property. Voter approval of the proposal to rezone the Muskegon Lake property from industrial to waterfront marine will be a topic of discussion for some time to come.